July 11, 2006

Floating Weeds

Add the movie Floating Weeds to your "must see" list if you are a fan of beautiful cinematography, set and costume design. I could live in this movie! The bold color palette of black, white, red and blue is amazing, as are the graphic prints on the characters' kimonos, which change in every scene. Even the opening credits, a static shot of a burlap background with red and white type over it, is simple and beautiful, and each shot in the movie looks like a photograph, which I love. The film was made in 1959 by Yasujiro Ozu, who remade his previous (silent, b/w) 1934 version with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. The story is about a traveling theater group who comes to a small fishing village in Japan. The music is great too. And the DVD was put out by Criterion, so of course it is the best. Check it out!